Foreword

• Publication year: 2001

36 Creighton L. Rev. 357. FOREWORD

Creighton Law Review

Vol. 36

JOHN MCKAY(fn*)

In a recent return to my law school alma mater, I had the privilege of recounting to the Creighton Law School community the political backdrop to L.S.C. v. Velazquez,531 U.S. 533 (2001), a First Amendment foray by the Court into the poverty law maelstrom.

The relative calm of both the academic setting of a law school and the Supreme Court itself (where I observed from a front row seat the Velazquez argument as President of the Legal Services Corporation) belied political fist-fights over the rights of the poor and victimized to access justice.

This is as it should be.

As a confirmed political brawler-turned-federal-prosecutor, I relish a good fight and respect the compromises and many outcomes of the political process. Even though not so idealistic as to believe that our courts, including the United States Supreme Court, would be immune from the reach of politics (see Bush v. Gore - you don't need the cite), our founders nevertheless sought to anchor the body politic in the law and an independent judiciary. While not a perfect sanctuary from opinion polls, campaign...